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How to Build Phonological Awareness Skills in Your School

Learn about phonological awareness, the ability to hear and manipulate units of sound within words. Then discover strategies to help students develop phonological awareness skills—with 10 free rhyming books for read-aloud experiences at school and at home! What Is Phonological Awareness and Why Is It Important? Phonological awareness skills help

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students listening to teacher in class

7 Tips for Teaching Math and Literacy Skills Together in Class

Math and reading are often seen as separate subjects with little crossover between the two—which couldn’t be further from the truth. Practicing math skills can contribute to a student’s literacy development. Likewise, a literacy curriculum can help PreK and early elementary students develop the reading comprehension skills they need to

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Family Guide: Early Learning & Development Standards by Grade

Back-to-school season is such an exciting time for young learners. It’s the beginning of a year full of new milestones to come, including learning skills, and emotional growth–especially in early education! But it can also be overwhelming for families as they wonder what their child’s early learning and development standards

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students listening to teacher read aloud

The Simple View of Reading: What You Need to Know

Understanding the science behind how children learn to read is the starting point for creating effective classroom instruction. One of the most well-known, concise, and grounded models of literacy development is the Simple View of Reading. This is a framework that represents reading proficiency as the product of two factors.

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teacher and students in classroom

15 Fun Back-to-School Activities for Elementary Students

Back-to-school is an exciting time for students – and their teachers. It’s a natural opportunity for you and your class to make connections with each other. Building those positive inter-student relationships early can improve everyone’s school year. That includes positive relationships between students and teachers, researchers have found. Here are

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How to Increase Family Involvement with Connection

Teamwork makes the dream work. Your school’s team consists of your students, school administrators, teachers, and other faculty and support staff. But it’s important to have every teammate in the bullpen. Don’t forget who needs to be included: your students’ families. It can be challenging at times to get families

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Engaging Families as Partners in Early Education

Candra Morris is the Vice President of Professional Learning here at Waterford.org. She recently sat down with us to talk about family engagement, student success, and building relationships. We like to say she wrote the book on family engagement in schools—because she did! What makes you so passionate about family

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20 Early Math Activities for PreK and Kindergarten Families

Teaching early math skills like counting, recognizing shapes, and using measurements such as time or length are perfect for building a strong learning foundation. Math is a combination of versatile skills that your child will use in many ways throughout their life. That’s why practicing beginning math skills in preschool

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